Backups of Media? How do you handle it?

[Tatsujin]

I manually back up all of my internals because those are more sensitive than my externals. My externals are only used for Anime purposes only which, ... I mean ... a total of 11TB+ (about 4TB of free space) of anime. So if I do a RAID on them I guess that could work too. I just don't understand the levels or numbers after the word RAID. Like RAID 0 or RAID 5.

[Xiong Chiamiov]

Contact them and contact other Internet providers in your area and see their plans about Business Class and see what Tiers they offer. It should cost you roughly about 20% more to get unlimited bandwidth and to have all ports open and possibly if your lucky you get static IP which is somewhat good.

I might kill someone to get business class for only 20% price increase.  Where I am, consumer 25 Mbps is $55/mo; business 25 Mbps is $130/mo.

I manually back up all of my internals because those are more sensitive than my externals. My externals are only used for Anime purposes only which, ... I mean ... a total of 11TB+ (about 4TB of free space) of anime. So if I do a RAID on them I guess that could work too. I just don't understand the levels or numbers after the word RAID. Like RAID 0 or RAID 5.

Wikipedia is always a good place to start.  The tldr is this:

RAID 1 - every disk is duplicated.  2 disks gives you 1 disk's worth of usable space.
RAID 5 - one disk used for recovery magic.
RAID 6 - two disks used for recovery magic.

It's worth noting that RAID (well, not RAID 0) provides redundancy, which does not replace backups.  Redundancy will only help if a disk dies - you'll need backups to deal with accidental deletion, file corruption (depending on the reason), malware, fire, theft, and a number of other things.  If you're ok with that, you'll save money, but be aware of the risks.

[tomoya-kun]

At Above,

Two 5 Disk RAID5 arrays which are duplicated is very safe then?

[kureshii]

At Above,

Two 5 Disk RAID5 arrays which are duplicated is very safe then?

Would certainly be much safer than the RAID 0+1 you are running, in any case. Though you’d likely be better off with a RAID6.

[Arveene]

I'm currently running with a 6 disk RAID6 setup. I have an external where I backup anything I can't easily redownload again off of BBT. Then for the really rare stuff, I'll also back that up on DVDs in a different part of the house.

[Zirro]

Contact them and contact other Internet providers in your area and see their plans about Business Class and see what Tiers they offer. It should cost you roughly about 20% more to get unlimited bandwidth and to have all ports open and possibly if your lucky you get static IP which is somewhat good.

I might kill someone to get business class for only 20% price increase.  Where I am, consumer 25 Mbps is $55/mo; business 25 Mbps is $130/mo.

I manually back up all of my internals because those are more sensitive than my externals. My externals are only used for Anime purposes only which, ... I mean ... a total of 11TB+ (about 4TB of free space) of anime. So if I do a RAID on them I guess that could work too. I just don't understand the levels or numbers after the word RAID. Like RAID 0 or RAID 5.

Wikipedia is always a good place to start.  The tldr is this:

RAID 0 - every disk is duplicated.  2 disks gives you 1 disk's worth of usable space.
RAID 5 - one disk used for recovery magic.
RAID 6 - two disks used for recovery magic.

It's worth noting that RAID (well, not RAID 1) provides redundancy, which does not replace backups.  Redundancy will only help if a disk dies - you'll need backups to deal with accidental deletion, file corruption (depending on the reason), malware, fire, theft, and a number of other things.  If you're ok with that, you'll save money, but be aware of the risks.

I think you have RAID 0 and RAID 1 mixed up. RAID 1 is the one that gives you redundancy with only one disks space, and RAID 0 (which was originally not one of the RAID levels) is pretty dangerous as it is used to link together two or more hard drives to appear as one. Once one of the RAID 0 hard drives crashes, the information on all other hard drives is partially damaged too.

[Freedom Kira]

^ Yes he does.

Just remember that RAID 0 means no R(edundancy). Pretty simple way to remember.

[Pentium100]

Yea, RAID0 is worse than no RAID since in the event of a drive failure you will lose all of the data in the array as opposed to just the data that was in the drive.
JBOD is a bit better in that regard but is still worse than separate drives.

[HiddenJumper]

I currently don't back up anything because I don't have the money to purchase HDDs (lack of a job). I do have a 500 GB internal for the primary OS and programs and a secondary 1TB internal for all personal data and multimedia items (music, images, etc). I have a 500 gb external I use for my anime. Anything 1080p I throw into my TB internal.

I wish I could back up my external stuff because my external is about 4 years old (while my internals are between 3 months to 2 years old). I just don't trust me external anime, which is why I don't download anime for keeps as much as I used to.

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I think you have RAID 0 and RAID 1 mixed up.

Oh right, silly me.  I've edited my post to avoid any future confusion.

[iRTuan]

I just have 4 internal hard drives, a 300gb, 700gb, and two 1tb. My 300gb is where my windows is, where I download my games, and where I download my .torrent or random things I don't need forever. My 700gb was my first hard drive I got because I just needed some quick space, so I use that for what I want to seed. My two other 1tb hard drives I just use to store the anime I'm not seeding.

[QlShdR]

Having multiple multi-terrabytes HDDs in RAID is a good idea (and also rather expensive).

But everyone forgets about Dual Layer BD-discs.

If you want to make sure that your precious data is backed up, I suggest you to buy a fine DL Blu-ray writer and use quality DL BD-discs for extra backup (in cooperation with your RAID-array).

[NaRu]

There is no backup solution for me since Im using 16TB of storage just for movies and anime.

[Pentium100]

If you want to make sure that your precious data is backed up, I suggest you to buy a fine DL Blu-ray writer and use quality DL BD-discs for extra backup (in cooperation with your RAID-array).

Still, they are of similar price as tapes but not rewritable. And a BD-R drive is not much cheaper than a used LTO1 or LTO2 drive.

Also, backing up terabytes of information to 50GB discs is a bit time consuming. 200GB tapes are better. Tapes with more capacity are even better (but the drives become quite expensive).

[QlShdR]

If you want to make sure that your precious data is backed up, I suggest you to buy a fine DL Blu-ray writer and use quality DL BD-discs for extra backup (in cooperation with your RAID-array).

Still, they are of similar price as tapes but not rewritable. And a BD-R drive is not much cheaper than a used LTO1 or LTO2 drive.

Also, backing up terabytes of information to 50GB discs is a bit time consuming. 200GB tapes are better. Tapes with more capacity are even better (but the drives become quite expensive).

LTO-drives are too much of a hassle. First, you have to found one. And tapes too. And they're not cheap either...

If I burn a BD-disc, I don't want to rewrite it. It's final. ~20 discs/TB. It's not that much. BD is the (near) future, it's spreading in a quite impressive rate due to the continously moderating price in the last couple of months. You can get a decent (and brand new) DL BD-W drive for about 100-120 $. For ~170 bucks, you have your Plextor.

Besides, there's the issue of compatibility; you can't play your tapes anywhere - a tapedrive needed, and it's not that common nowadays (it's rare like Hell), while more and more people are buying BD-players.

There is no backup solution for me since Im using 16TB of storage just for movies and anime.

Of course there is. 320 DL BD-disc : ) and/or bonus 3 TB external HDDs on the shelf, standing next to each other like (expensive) books. ^__^

[bork]

Did some cost comparison

DVDs   - 18.8GB per dollar   4.7GB/disk, 100 for $25
BD-R   -  16.7GB per dollar   25GB/disk, 20 for $30
BR-DL  -   6.1GB per dollar   50GB/disk, 10 for $82

HD      -  16.7GB per dollar  1TB, 1 for $60
          -  20GB per dollar    2TB, 1 for $100

It seems that a hard drive is cheaper to use as a backup device than optical disks.  There are some hazards in that a hard drive is a bit more fragile but with careful handling it is option.  My case has a sata docking port in the front so all I have to do is shove a bare drive into the front when I need to transfer onto it then pack it up carefully when done.  

btw - priced one of those 300GB tape backups - $1200.  No thanks.
 

[NaRu]

Of course there is. 320 DL BD-disc : ) and/or bonus 3 TB external HDD-s on the shelf, standing next to each other like (expensive) books. ^__^

oh hell no lol

[QlShdR]

Did some cost comparison

DVDs   - 18.8GB per dollar   4.7GB/disk, 100 for $25
BD-R   -  16.7GB per dollar   25GB/disk, 20 for $30
BR-DL  -   6.1GB per dollar   50GB/disk, 10 for $82

HD      -  16.7GB per dollar  1TB, 1 for $60
          -  20GB per dollar    2TB, 1 for $100

It seems that a hard drive is cheaper to use as a backup device than optical disks.  There are some hazards in that a hard drive is a bit more fragile but with careful handling it is option.  My case has a sata docking port in the front so all I have to do is shove a bare drive into the front when I need to transfer onto it then pack it up carefully when done.  

btw - priced one of those 300GB tape backups - $1200.  No thanks.
 

I have my source for cheaper BD and DL BD-discs. : )

oh hell no lol

But it would look cool.  
Extra HDDs ---> For about ~700 bucks, you have your back up.

[Pentium100]

btw - priced one of those 300GB tape backups - $1200.  No thanks.

I got a used LTO2 drive for 144EUR
A 200GB tape costs anywhere from 11.5EUR (appear sometimes on ebay) to 30.4EUR (available at a local store on order - arrive the next day).

The tape should hold onto its data for about 30 years. Good luck achieving that with an optical disk and especially a hard drive. Magnetooptical discs could do it, but they are more expensive and only have 128MB-9GB capacity.

[moonlight]

Mwa, for backups of really important files I use gmail and dropbox (don't really care about the "privacy" issue, I'm not an important person anyway, so who the hell would spy/steal/corrupt my files X_X). Of course this is only managable for somewhat small files (mainly documents).
Media files, only music I can backup on my mp3-player (which I never use anyway) XD

For the rest, like anime, I just can't afford it. I only have 1 external HDD and just hope it doesnt die... If it dies, accept it I guess :S